Cover-Credits:
20th March 2022 will go down as one of the greatest dates in the history of League of Legends and its esports scene. A total of 138K fans and League enthusiasts tuned in to watch history in the making as the Korean Titans T1 took on DRX Esports in its final series in the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) Spring Split 2022. As the DRX nexus broke into smaller pieces one last time, T1 emerged victorious and secured its 18th consecutive win. Now, T1 stands tall and mighty as it has vanquished all the teams in its way in the LCK, not once but twice. For the first time in the annals of Korean League of Legends esports, we have a team that has finished a split without dropping a single series. With one of the greatest players of League of Legends, Faker, at its helm, T1 looks like the overwhelming favorite to win the Spring Split and translate this momentum into the Mid-Season Invitational 2022.
T1 in 2015 vs 2022
The old SK Telecom T1 kicked off the 2015 LCK Summer Split in a similar fashion. The team consisting of LCK hall-of-famers Jang "MaRin" Gyeong-hwan, Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, Bae "Bang" Jun-sik, Lee "Wolf" Jae-wan guided by coach Kim "kkOma" Jeong-gyun put on a 14-game winning streak to start the season. However, T1 eventually lost their 15th game to the now-disbanded CJ Entus, thus ending their streak. The only constant between the old roster and the new one today is the anchor Faker. With young players like Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeon, Ryu “Keria” Min-seok, Moon “Oner” Hyeon-joon, and Choi “Zeus” Woo-je accompanying him, Faker hopes to rally towards a dominant season. This iteration of the T1 roster has been in top form, working as one to decimate its opponents and show prowess in the best-of-three series time and again.
Here are all of the matches that T1 played in this split and the respective results:
Along with this monumental win, T1 and its players have managed to beat other records in the league. All the stats and figures quoted in the article were sourced from Game of Legends and Oracle's Elixir at the time of writing.
The players’ KDA ratio have also been ridiculously good.
Zeus: 3.6
Oner: 5.8
Faker: 4.9
Gumayusi: 5.5
Keria: 4.8
Unkillable Demon King Faker
This year is Faker’s 10th year as a professional League of Legends player and he proved that he is dubbed the GOAT of League of Legends for a reason. He has won nine LCK championships and holds the record for winning the most Worlds titles. During the course of these 10 years, he has become the first player to rack up 2,500 kills in the LCK and also has an overall win rate of 67% with a win-loss record of 584W - 287L.
In the 2022 LCK Spring Split, by picking up mid-lane Kai’Sa, Faker showed how vast and diverse his champion pool is. With the Veigar pick in the series against DRX Esports on 20th March, Faker now has 72 unique picks in the LCK.
The other members of the roster have not been quiet during this split, either. With a total of 219 kills, Gumayusi has broken the LCK record for the most kills in a single season. The previous record-holder was Ruler, at 209 kills. He also has a figure of 10.2 creep score per minute (CSM), the highest in the league in this split. Additionally, Gumayusi had 311 CS with a CSM of 12.4 in a 25 minute game against Hanwha Life Esports, one of the best figures this season.
Meanwhile, T1’s support Keria has picked up 462 assists. This is the highest number of assists held by an LCK support this split. According to a Reddit user, the previous record-holder was another SKT legend Wolf, who had 445 assists.
Interestingly, T1 holds the first four spots is in the top team gold per minute stats, according to Game of Legends:
2347 GPM (T1 vs Fredit BRION)
2339 GPM (T1 vs Fredit BRION)
2258 GPM (T1 vs Liiv SANDBOX)
2239 GPM (KT Rolster vs T1)
T1 is also a part of the shortest and longest games of this split. The shortest game of this split was T1 vs Fredit BRION at 19:05 minutes and the longest was between Damwon Kia vs T1, which spanned 55:26 minutes. Of course, we are going to spot T1 in the bloodiest match of the split with 48 kills in 40:56 minutes. It was the match between Nongshim RedForce and T1. The team collectively has a win rate of 83.72% in the 2022 LCK Spring Split.
The next immediate goal in sight for T1 is to lift the LCK trophy this split and continue its dominance in the upcoming Mid-Season Invitational, where it would lock horns with the best teams from the rest of the world. T1 has been wanting to reclaim its position as the #1 League of Legends team in the world and it seems like it is a strong possibility this time around.
